Demystifying Project Management

Reviewed by Meghashri Dalvi

Your project team has been throwing around words like WBS, charter, risk mitigation, dependencies, constraints, and many more. You are bewildered. What’s more – you are part of the project and are expected to contribute towards these seemingly complex words…

OK, it’s time to demystify those words. Welcome to the land of project management. Welcome to 4pm.com. The name, incidentally, means “For PM (Project Managers)” as its advisor Sally nicely wrote to me!

At first the homepage may appear simplistic. But it is actually a clever way of presenting all the important information in one go. A considerate thought for the time-starved project managers!

The list of available articles is appropriately broken down into different heads. There are the typical project related heads like Team Performance and PM Software. Get your basics of project management here.

Then go on to understand distinctive concepts such as Micromanagement, and Project Management Tiers. I particularly liked the Selecting Project Management Software, which is a comprehensive guide on Project Management applications. Not only does it tell you how to choose, but it also makes the selection that much simpler, structuring it on specific types of projects. The reusable resources like Risk Analysis Template and Conflict Analysis Template will definitely add to your list of vital tools.

Besides all these fundamentals, what really appealed to me at this site is its innovative approach to the stressful world of project management. Look out for unique articles such as Project Team Members Who Work At-home . It provides you with new insight and the current trends in team management. Achievement-driven Methodology explores how you should look at your project details as achievements steps and not as technical to-do lists.

These articles are from the regularly published at Free PM Talk Newsletter that claims to take a “humorous look at the real challenges in a PM's world.” I would certainly say they live up to their promise!

Been in situations when you fail to understand what the project report says? Experience the déjà vu in Project Status Reports that stupefy their readers . Or have you ever tackled a project without good tracking? See what goes wrong in Project tracking: Watching for Icebergs while blindfolded . Also worth mention are The 5 dumbest things a Project Manager can say, or The Saga of the Project from Hell that take a humoristic approach and draw your attention sharply to pitfalls.

Let us see what all this means to us Technical Communicators. Project management is extremely important to us on two levels – the plan of the entire project (SDLC) and the plan for the documentation lifecycle (DDLC). Each phase needs understanding of the concepts and applying practical skills. 4pm.com provides ample resources on both counts. It takes hands-on project situations and offers proven tips and toolsets to help through all the phases of a project – right from Initiation to Planning, Execution, Control, and Closing.

You can even go further and get the PM certifications, by opting for E-learning and then appearing for assessments. You can choose your domain from the current available IT / Administrative and Sales / Healthcare / Engineering - Construction domains. For a definitive hardcopy reference go for PM Books. These books are highly professional – especially the Project Manager's KnowledgeBase, a comprehensive textbook for PMP and CAPM candidates.

The treasure you take away from this site is the free PDF desktop reference called Desktop Tool (Download it from Free PM's Desktop Tool ). You can keep it on your desktop and easily look up any information related to project management. It provides quick links to the various resources available on the site, as well as summary of project management terminology and formulae. It covers HR, Contracts, Risks, Cost, Quality, Time, Scope, and Communications – the essentials in the context of project management.

Expect more and more jewels to be added to this wealth of information. Highly recommended for regular visits. Go to 4pm.com as often as you like – it is a rich resource for all.

(Meghashri Dalvi is Documentation Executive at Savvion, India)

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